The Ann Arbor Register was a weekly newspaper started on December 6, 1872 when Dr. Alvin Chase--who had sold his Peninsular Courier & Family Visitant to Rice Beal in 1869--created the Ann Arbor Printing and Publishing Company. But the paper would only last eight months under Chases's ownership, closing down on August 27, 1873 an injunction asked for by Rice Beal due to a clause in the contract for the sale of the Courier which stated that Chase would not re-enter the publishing business was granted by the courts. Chase sold his interest in the Register but it could not resume publication until 1875 after the case had made its way through to the Michigan Supreme Court. Beal won, but with Chase no longer the owner, the rival newspaper began again on December 29, 1875. The paper changed hands several times under the next two and a half decades and was finally sold to Junius Beal--son of Rice Beal and owner of the Ann Arbor Courier, successor to the Peninsular Courier & Family Visitant--and put out its final issue on December 21, 1899.
To learn more about the Ann Arbor Register, read A History of the Newspapers of Ann Arbor 1829-1920 by Louis W. Doll. Old News features articles digitized from the following issues of the Ann Arbor Register. Visit each issue for a full list of articles.